The 1st Airborne Corps was an airborne corps of the Red Army during World War II. It fought in the Battle of Kiev, the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between September 1941 and January ...

and in the Battle of Demyansk.

History

The 1st Airborne Corps was formed in April 1941 from the 1st, 204th and 211th Airborne Brigades in the Kiev Special Military District, commanded by Major General

Matvei Usenko Matvei Alekseevich Usenko (russian: Матвей Алексеевич Усенко; , – May 12 1943) was a major general of the Red Army during the World War II, Second World War. Biography In 1918 he joined the Red Army, and during the Civi ...

. It was temporarily moved to Odessa Military District in preparation for a possible invasion of Romania but moved back to Kiev within a short period. After Operation Barbarossa, the corps fought to defend

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

from the advancing Army Group South, along with the 5th Army and the 6th Army. After being reinforced by the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit ...

and

3rd Airborne Corps Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

, the corps fought in the Battle of Kiev. It was almost surrounded during the German encirclement of Kiev and was disbanded afterwards on 6 August. The corps was reformed in early September and conducted training around

Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...

. On 24 November, it was subordinated to

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

High Command. On the next day, the corps left Saratov for new bases near Moscow in the vicinity of the Lyubertsy airfield. In December, it participated in airborne operations to disrupt German troops around Moscow. Between 16-17 February 1942, the 204th Airborne Brigade's 4th Battalion was airdropped in the

Rzhev Rzhev ( rus, Ржев, p=ˈrʐɛf) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Tver Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Staritsa (town), Tver Oblast, Staritsa and from Tver, on the highway and railway connecting Moscow and Riga. It ...

operation. During late February and early March, the corps fought around Demyansk. During the Demyansk fighting, the corps was sent behind German lines in an unsuccessful operation to capture airfields supplying the Demyansk Pocket, but suffered heavy losses with only 900 out of 8,500 men in the corps returning to Soviet lines. In August, the corps was converted into the

37th Guards Rifle Division The 37th Guards Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army which fought during World War II. The division was formed on 2 August 1942 from the 1st Airborne Corps in Lyubertsy, near Moscow. Its most famous action was the defense of the ...

and fought at

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

. The corps was reformed in fall 1942. On 8 December, its units were used to form two new guards airborne divisions. Its 1st, 204th, and 211th Airborne Brigades were used to form the

9th Guards Airborne Division 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

. Its headquarters became a part of the 4th Guards Airborne Division.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Soviet Union corps Corps of the Soviet Airborne Forces Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1942